The De-humanization of the Visual Media.

                                         The De-humanization of the Visual Media.

In the last few years, our entertainment channels have changed their focus from the saas-bahu sagas to horror serials with grotesque and scary looking actors and unbelievable savage brutality of action,  that make viewing a frightening and unsettling experience. The evening entertainment these days seems to be a visual reproduction of what we read in the morning newspapers, where every page reports murder, rape, brutality, robbery, fatal accidents apart from the political skullduggery at display both in the houses of the Parliament and on the streets. The only significant difference is the hard reality of news and the supernatural grotesquerie on our tele -screens.  The latest example is the new serial Kavach replacing Naagin that ended a few days before. The channel started airing the promos for the new serial nearly a month before it started telecasting. The promos presented a dishevelled Mona Singh(otherwise  a remarkable actress reputed for her grace, poise and style) with  blood shot eyes, acting the role of a devil possessed character. All TV channels have included a bizarre  horror flick or a ghost- focused serial and they up the ante by such ghastly promos, followed by a self flattering note  that the new serial will be even better than the earlier one- the snake-centred Naagin which presumably had garnered fantastic TRP ratings. These serials insult the intelligence of the viewers by such crass and dark presentation of spirit- possessed heroines (why only heroines are possessed by spirits and not the suited-booted heroes, I wonder). The story is a drag, the characters are unreal and inhabit the dark interiors of our psyche and their make-up and costumes  especially of the spirit possessed dayaan or witches) are horrendous and repulsive that affront  our aesthetic sensibility.

Not to be outdone by such supernatural TV serials that come into our living rooms, we have serials like Yudh(the first Bachchan starrer on TV) and season one of  the serial 24 that are violent, to use a mild word. The promos of Season two of the same serial 24, based on the American series of the same name, show not only violence, but portrayal of human crassness and boorishness. It is a sad reflection that Indians never invent, they ‘desi’fy foreign products in every sphere. We have the Indian version of Mcburger, Mcpuff, Italian pasta and noodles, Chinese chowmein, Manchurian etc. Even in entertainment, we import Dance America, American idol, America Got Talent, Big Boss, How to win Million dollars etc with an Indian twist. The newest entrant to this haloed “phoren” invention is the serial 24. We are known for our improvised jugaad and find our inventive genius to borrow ideas from foreign countries and turn them as made in India.

The violence that one sees in a serial like 24 is mind-boggling in its absurdity and cruelty. This serial like many contemporary films is also of violence, for violence and heaved by violence. It is a take- off on an American serial and drips violence from start to finish. Watching violent films is today considered displaying macho bravado and having a strong stomach. Even women do not like to be seen as timid with no stomach for anything violent. When the screen shows the most gruesome and repellent scenes of murder, the viewer keeps watching with a consolation that it is only reel reality.  If such things happen in our real life, we will be frozen stiff in fear and helplessness. The vicarious viewing of that which is far removed from us does not credit us in the least with a sense of bravery. It is sheer escapism, to be far away from the madding reality.  Sadly in all these serials the good, bad and the ugly –all come to a pathetic end providing neither comfort nor solace.

What is happening in the US is happening here. The gun culture is widely predominant among us and at the slightest provocation one zips out the pistol and shoots the man in front in the blink of an eye. The present day generation fed on violent movies has become immune to the gory and blood thirsty scenes. The producers of such films claim that violence in movies has a cathartic effect on the viewers and purges them of anger and violence. But this is not the truth. In the 1970s, England experimented with the theatre of violence. Edward Bond, one of the famous playwrights of this genre justified it saying "I write about violence just the way Jane Austen wrote about manners…Violence shapes and obsesses our society, and if we do not stop being violent we have no future. People who do not want writers to write about violence want to stop them writing about us and our time. It would be immoral not to write about violence." He concluded saying, “If you can't face Hiroshima in the theatre, you'll eventually end up in Hiroshima itself." But facing Hiroshima in the theatre has only brought   Hiroshima to our doorstep!

What do we see now after nearly fifty years? The new generation that has grown upon violence has adopted the gun culture. We need no theatres, no words, no promptings. Just pick up the gun and shoot if the man (or woman) before you is not in agreement with your views. The chilling Nirbhaya episode which was a testimony to inhuman brutality and the subsequent rapes and murders over the last few years are the result of the horror that is being glorified by our visual media. America reports almost daily shootings of innocents in restaurants, children in schools which have now extended to racial aggression where cops attack civilians and vice versa on the basis of the skin colour.  President Obama’s attempt to control the gun law has also failed. To complicate matters further, we have the rise of IS terrorism where any number of young Jihadis have been trained to kill and be killed because they have been guaranteed a place in Heaven. The new recruits for the JIhadi status are brainwashed to believe in the misrepresented and perverted interpretation  of the Quran to give up their family, employment and country and  take up the gun and shoot all those who do not follow their version of Islam. Violence and death have become so common that nothing startles us.

Our films and serials centred on anger, vengeance and violence cannot be equated with the old classics built on the theory of catharsis. There is no trace of purging the negative emotions of fear and pity; on the contrary, the present day visual media is justifying the negative emotions to heighten ruthlessness, pitilessness and heartlessness. The rise in the incidence of rape, road rage, murder and violence, the quickness with which one pulls the trigger and the mindlessness and feelinglessness in the aftermath of murder are symptomatic of a society in decay.

Do we need such blood chilling serials and films?  Do the producers want us to believe that this is also a slice-of- life and must be viewed as a realistic experience.  How many of these producers know what A.G. Gardiner wrote about achieving  the maximum result with the minimum effort. “It is the art of the great either who with a line reveals infinity. It is the art of the great dramatist who with a significant word shakes the soul. Schiller, said Coleridge, burns a city to create his effect of terror: Shakespeare drops a handkerchief and freezes our blood.”  The way we present violence is just the opposite of the effect produced by Shakespeare for such scenes affect us negatively without the certainty or affirmation of a restoration of order. There has to be a ban on presenting violence as a justified way of life. There has to be a censoring of serials that encourage supernatural occurrence and irrational phobias. Our great epic, The Mahabharata shows the bloodiest war when all men belonging to the Kuru dynasty were killed except for the five Pandavas who take control of Hastinapur and bring harmony and peace to the strife-torn kingdom. The other epic, The Ramayana highlights the power of Rama to destroy the demons among whom Ravana was the deadliest. We see violence in the plays of Shakespeare and Sophocles, but what sets all of them apart from modern portrayal of violence is the attempt to restore moral order after the churning  and destruction. All the Classics give us hope as good triumphs over evil at the end. But today violence is presented to encourage and justify violence as a way of life. The consequences of such exhibition are what we see today –in the daily killings of people in different parts of the world. What a pity that we have imported violence in entertainment without understanding the deadly results of watching such mindless and unending violence in our drawing rooms.

This is dehumanization of the popular medium. Can the visual media wake up to recognize the fall out of such shows and put an end to a deadly imagination that releases the dark forces and blind us from seeing  the light of reason, beauty , kindness, compassion and humaneness – the qualities that  knit us together as the best of God’s creation!